We all sat down on a bench between lockers. "Now, this might take some time," Kim said, "So with that being said, I wish that no one will walk into the locker room until we're ready to leave and that no one will find it odd that we're not in class."
"Good thinking," I said. "So how did this start?"
"It actually started with me," Rachel said. "It was a couple of months ago. I was leaving the supermarket and saw an older woman struggling to put her groceries in her car. I just offered to help. After I helped her and put her cart away for her, she handed me this necklace. She told me it granted wishes. I had the same reaction that I'm sure you did, Joey."
"That it was all ridiculous, of course, isn't that right, Joey?" Kim chimed in.
"Well, yea," I replied. "So did you make a stupid wish right there, too?" I asked.
"Sure did," said Rachel. "I wished I had a million dollars. Nothing happened, so I didn't think anything of it. The old woman was kind of funny, so I turned around to tell her that it didn't work, but she wasn't there. I didn't even hear her car start! But I just went back into my car and...there was a million dollars in cash sitting in piles in the passenger seat."
I asked, "So what did you do?"
"To be honest," Rachel continued, "I was too afraid to do anything. I sat there looking at it for a minute. Then I decided it wasn't good to have all that money sitting there in public, so I went home as fast as I could."
"But obviously you've made other wishes, right?" I asked.
"Yea, I have," Rachel smiled. "Nothing really outlandish. I gave most all of that money away, especially after I found out I could make that wish again, which I did. But who really needs money when I can wish for things that I want or need."
Kim started to talk again. "So just a few weeks ago, I ran into an old woman at a department store. She left a few things she had with her sitting on a counter. I just ran after her and made sure she had them. She gave me this bracelet and told me that same thing the old woman had told Rachel and the same thing that, I imagine, the old woman told you today."
"Yea, right," I agreed.
Kim continued. "So I made a wish, too, not expecting it to come true, but it did."
"What wish did you make?" I asked.
Kim blushed a little bit. "That my boobs would be bigger," she said.
"But I don't remember any change in your...size," I said nervously.
"You wouldn't have," Kim giggled. "As soon as I realized it worked, I made a wish for no one to remember them being a different size prior to that time. It worked pretty well until..."
"She ran into me later that day," Rachel said. "I noticed right away. 'Did you just get a boob job done today and never bother to tell me?' I remember asking her. That's when we discovered something about our gifts."
"Yes," Kim said. "We shared our stories and realized it must have been the same old woman. So we did some testing and realized that we could make as many wishes as we wanted to, but that it didn't have any effect on ourselves."
I was confused. "Like how?" I asked.
"Well," Rachel said, "I recognized the difference in her body right away. We started to think that maybe our gifts protected us from wishes that might change us in some way, even if it was only mentally or had something to do with a memory."
"Yep," Kim agreed. "So we tried to change each other but it wouldn't work. We could change other people, and let me tell you we had some fun doing that," she giggled, as did Rachel, "but never each other."
Rachel interrupted, "Unless we allowed it." She saw that I was still confused. "If I wanted, or agreed, to let a wish by Kim affect me, it would, and vice versa."
I let it all sink in for a moment. "So how did my wish affect you this morning, Kim? Shouldn't you have been protected?"
Kim smiled again. "Yes, I should have," she answered. "Except I let it affect me." My mouth dropped open. Before I could ask how, she told me. "I saw the old woman about to get on that bus. I wanted to run up to her and thank her for her gift, and ask if her car was in the shop or something, but then I saw you come running with her purse. So I waited a minute and saw her put that ring on your finger. As soon as she did, I knew she had given you the same gift she'd given to us. I wanted to make sure you'd know the power was real, so just in case you saw me, I made sure that any wish you made, if directed at me, would affect me. After all, I could always undo it later."
I nodded. "You knew you were naked the whole time and didn't get mad at me?" I asked.
"No, of course not," she said. "We've been friends, but nothing more. You may think I've never noticed your attention toward me, but I have. It's natural, anyway. You're a guy...or were, at least. Whatever, that's not the point." She and Rachel both laughed.
"Why'd you scream?" I asked. "I mean, if you knew what I had and all."
"Well, I guess I wasn't ready for that," Kim answered. "It probably had more to do with everyone else seeing me naked. But when you made the other wish, or at least I'm guessing you made another wish, I felt normal and no one paid attention to me, I knew it was OK."
I nodded again. One thing still bothered me, though. "So why did you play dumb when you talked to me?" I asked.
"There wasn't much of a point to spill the beans there," she answered. "I wanted to get in to school and tell Rachel. We kind of decided to wait for your next move. I must say it took a lot of courage."
"And a slight bit of perversion," Rachel chimed in, a sly smile dressing her face. "But, like Kim said, it's only natural."
"Yep," Kim agreed. "We figured you'd stay, and we've had it set up that Miss Rawlings lets us do what we want, so we knew we'd get the opportunity as long as you stayed. And you didn't disappoint us."
"Indeed," Rachel said. "By the way, you look stunning. I mean, I was a little surprised you'd turn yourself into a girl, but...damn, you're hot."
Now it was my turn to blush. "Thanks," I said sheepishly. "At least you two are real."
Kim laughed. "Not totally," she said. "I never did change my boobs back. But, yes, believe it or not, other than that, we've never changed our appearances. We like who we are. I was just envious of Rachel's boob size, which is why I made that wish. I'm just running with it."
"So now what?" I asked.